Cartomancy is a method of divination and fortune telling that’s very popular in today’s world.
Reading cards to get insight into the future is one of the world’s oldest forms of fortune telling and has been particularly popular ever since the 18th century and onward.
The Deck
A common cartomancy deck is just a normal pack of playing cards: standard decks of 52 cards divided into suits of spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. For fortune telling, it’s common to use all cards ace through 10, as well as the three face cards, but many readers will also add jokers or even blank cards to the deck as well.
However, there are many deviations from this rule, and another common method for fortune telling using playing cards involves removing cards 2, 6, and everything in-between them.
Common Methods
Generally, cards are drawn in a specific order. Divination is based around interpreting the individual card and what order it was revealed in to gain insight into the subject’s future.
There are thousands upon thousands of possible combinations, so an experienced card reader is usually required to get the most accurate insight into the subject’s fortune, but it’s also possible to use the cards to help them with present-day occurrences or understanding past events, as well.
Card Meaning and Interpretation
As far as the individual cards go, there’s generally one card for each week of the year, and the suits are generally seen to represent either different seasons, the different times of the day, or one of the four elements. The face cards generally represent people.
For example, the King of Hearts is often associated with a paternal male figure, while the King of Diamonds is commonly seen as a man with great wealth or in a position of authority. Queens are generally used in the same way, with a Queen of Clubs representing a career-oriented woman or one who’s very social, whereas the King or Queen of Spades can be seen as intelligent and ambitious, but sometimes also deceptive and calculating.
Queens and Kings are very personal to the subject of the reading and can represent many things, but here are some of the other cards and their common interpretations:
- Jack Card – Represents close friends
- Ten Card – Good luck or general happiness
- Nine Card – Wishes and dreams
- Eight Card – Guests, visitors, and strangers
- Seven Card – Deceitfulness, lies, or broken promises
- Six Card – Surprises
- Five Card – Jealousy
- Four Card – Change, journeys, or new experiences
- Three Card – Regret and caution
- Two Card – Success in general
- Ace Card – Friendships, lasting relationships, and new love interests
The specific meaning of each card will vary depending upon its position in the thread, the particular question that’s being sought, and the other cards that are drawn with it, which is why it’s important to have a well-experienced reader handle the fortune telling if the participant wants the most accurate reading possible.
Readings involve specific questions or general fortunes and have the reader placing the cards out in a specific spread. Cartomancers do not need to be psychic themselves, but they need to have good intuition and be familiar with the subject in order to make an accurate reading.
What Type of Questions Should Be Asked?
Cartomancy can be used to help people through all sorts of trouble and give insight into their future. Some of the more popular topics covered in cartomancy involves assistance in making career decisions, insight into the subject’s love life, seeing what the future holds, and understanding large events in a person’s life, but there are many more issues that cartomancy can help resolve.
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